S45

LIFE GF OOBDEN, [oBab

"#7. our subjects in all Asia, whom we disarmed when we 008
possession of the country, and of whom Lord Dalhousie
said, in a letter, not ten years ago, that every man wa
against us |
“No; there is no future but trouble and logs and disappointment
 and, I fear, crime in India, and they are doing
the people of this country the greatest service who tell
them the honest truth according to their convictions, and
prepare them for abandoning at some future ‘time the
thankless and impossible task.”
“ August 24. (To Mr. Bright.)—If we could meet, I should
be glad to have a whole week’s adjourned debates on
public matters with you; and I coald write you long letters
too, but somehow I always feel myself restrained by the fear
that my correspondence does you harm by keeping the braid
needlessly on the old scent. I wish you to discard politics
from your thoughts ; how then can I with consistency dose
you with my political speculations ? Besides, to tell yon the
bruth, I can find nothing very cheerful to remark upon iB
relation to public matters. The proceedings of the House
have ceased to interest me; and when I glance at the con
clusion of the reports, and sometimes read © adjourned at 8
quarter to three o'clock,’ I hug myself with delight at the
recollection that I am not one of the dramatis persone of
the humiliating performance.
“The only subject that binds my attention fast to the
newspapers is this horrible Indian business. There has been
nothing in history since the St. Domingo revolt to compare
in fiendish ferocity with the atrocities by the Sepoys upon
the women and children who have fallen into their hands:
One stands aghast and dumabfoundered at the reflection
that after a century of intercourse with us, the natives of
India suddenly exhibit themselves greater savages than
any of the North American Indians who have been brought